Tasks To Do
🐇 Rabbit spray and repeat.
🌶 Get new ristras & wreaths for front portal.
🖌 Paint gate.
🌳 Move blue pot (after taking out nicotiana in fall) - put it on patio near table, with Hope desert willow tree in it (Sooner Plant Farm had 1 gal. but out of stock)
🌱 Hire garden designer to
Take out Spanish broom and Rose of Sharon.Remove gravel, install soil & mulch for expanded garden.Move redbud.Mossy rock wall edging under aspens.Remove irises at fence in side yard.
Contacted:
Green Garden Landscaping - contacted 8/5, like their web site and services are what I need
August 29
So Much Rain
And just as we got home and walked in the door, it started to rain again, and came down steady for over an hour.
Total rain from the weekend and from when we arrived: a full inch of rain. You don't see that very often here!
Greg's garden is so nice. His plants are twice the size of anything similar I planted at the same time.
His street trees have really filled in and look great. They were such little twigs, underwatered out in the wide weedy hell strip by the road, but boy do they look fantastic. I was surprised at how mature it all looks, and how things have grown.
His honeylocust and aspen are getting tall and adding real presence and shade now.
His Blonde Ambition grass is so much bigger than my paltry one -- the eyelash seedheads bounce and catch light. And his Karl Foerster grasses are huge, utterly hiding the a/c unit. Even a simple clump of iris is three times the size of my small irises.
There were stunning combinations -- the crimson barberry and deep magenta sedum goes beautifully with some orange agastaches and a huge stand of sunny black-eyed Susans. (I can't even grow black eyed Susans, sigh, and I have the same orange agastaches and mine are tiny and wimpy).
The whole line of sight along the fence as you enter through the arch is beautiful.
His Kintzley's Ghost vine is growing lush and stretching right up over the arch, much fuller and more vertical than mine.
The other side of the fence is filled in beautifully too, but needs something vertical and with more color on that side. The deutzias, hostas, Blonde Ambition grasses, yellow columbines and even the Johnny jump ups are big and lush, anchored by a spirea in the corner by the garage and by a new Jupiter's Beard still gaining size under the house window. But . . . needs something to break up the fence. Another vine?
We had a great weekend, even went to the Denver Botanic Garden and he really engaged and came away with a better understanding of plant compositions and how they can be layered together. Fun times!
August 26
Spectacular Growth
The Red Cascade rose is re-blooming and has sent up lots of new growth. Those canes are reaching out and I need to train them soon to go up to the fence (or maybe somehow get them up over the new door canopy?)
Vanessa parrotia has also sent up giant new branches, vertical and upright, reaching skyward.
The Chinese privets had lots of new growth, going beyond "starburst" effect to shaggy. I pruned the one by the garage door -- I do like the rounded limbed up form, but is it too stiff now? Too lollipop?
August 23
Green Garden Landscaping
Jeronimo Lopez came by today -- I liked him. He was early, eager for the business, understood what I wanted and is available this fall. He offered some suggestions to my general plans. Not a designer, really an installer, but he took my general descriptions and added what he thought would work a little better (stone suggestions, width of a curve, rejuvenate the Rose of Sharon, eliminate the red volcanic rock, etc.)
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| Around the aspens he can do this kind of edging, although only one course, but with some slightly staggered sizes and heights. |
He did not take any notes. He will get me a formal proposal by e-mail. He also will quote a 6 station full irrigation system, going under the sidewalk and patio and watering everything, something I've dithered on doing since we moved here. It's needed. My Shrubblers are just a stop gap.
I'll wait for his quote, but he thinks about $15,000 for everything. Yikes.
August 22
Summer Winds Down
Our trip to CA was great - lots of time with Karolina. Then Gail came for 4 days over my birthday and in a few days we are off to Denver to see Greg. Summer is speeding by and winding down.
It turns out the fall anemone is not Robustissima, but September Charm. The dark rose purple flowers and their nodding downward facing form are the distinguishing features. I wanted Robustissima -- loved the shell pink upward facing flowers. Oh well. These are doing well, finally getting full and big and flowering nicely.
The gardens tolerated our being away for a full week. Frank watered pots and I ran the Shrubblers, but that barely kept up. Still, all but a pot of petunias survived.
August 9
Summer
We are off to California tomorrow for 7 days, and I can't wait to see Karolina. But the garden is at its best right now, and I'll miss that.
The third, late Splendens heuchera is blooming, well after the two next to it went by.
The butterfly bush in the corner of the kitchen courtyard is in full lavender flower and looks nice. The whole courtyard garden is pleasing me this season, finally filling in and looking very cottagey.
The white Icicle veronicas in the shady dining room window garden have mildew pretty badly, but they flower. The one in the kitchen courtyard is fuller and much nicer. These need more sun. * Move them?
The Gambel oaks in the field are tiny but thriving so far.
A new strawberry crop is bearing in the troughs since I put them in shade on the front portal.
I am loving the PowWow white coneflowers scattered about the potting bench curve. And Mrs. George Jackman clematis is putting out more clear white blooms.
The gaura by the rain barrel is big and flowery and delicate.
The cottonwood looks super this year. Last it it looked awful, half defoliated. This year it is green and lush and shady and full.
I could go on. Many delights, things look good, rain has helped.
August 8
Loose, natural wildflowers
Red sage, yellow wildflowers and purple accents just seemed loose and happy and colorful anchoring an untended corner near the driveway.
Well, I think in a small, contained way I have that now.
I really like how the grouping at the sundial in the corner of the patio looks.
It's self seeded hairy goldenaster, three pots of Summer Jewel annual sage, and a purple Angelonia in the terracotta vase.
It's just a tiny spot in a sunny location, and it does not photograph very well! But it adds a loose, colorful wildflower look to the structured part of my deck and patio.
I just like looking at it. I like the red / yellow / deep purple combo and the way the sundial rises just barely above the level of the wildflowers. I need to do this again next year.
Wish it photographed better -- it really is nice.
August 6
Well this is subtle
I moved the patio table over just inches and squared it off rather than angled in the spot below the stone patio. I had previously set it up so you could get around the whole set, now it is tucked in next to the deck. You can still sidle around it to the right, but there is more open area to the left side.
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| Above, angled in the center. Below, squared off and closer to the deck. |
It makes the patio and deck seem like one thing, more connected. Previously the table was centered, showcased as its own area, making three distinct seating areas in the back yard. Now, offset from the center of the patio it is not the main view from inside. And squared up it doesn't break the line of sight so much looking down the yard.
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| The table is squared off, not breaking up the line of sight, and tied visually to the deck more. |
And by moving the table off to the side a bit, I have a little bit of room to put the big blue pot with a tall desert willow in it, creating some height and shade in the central part of the sunny patio.
I'm really obsessing over inches now.
August 4
Design
Still a ton of monsoon activity, occasional rain, lots of clouds, and several cool, nice mornings on the patio.
Sitting at the table having my coffee, I truly want that Spanish broom gone. It blocks everything. I want to get this project underway.
I was out on the walking trail later in the morning and the neighbors had me come in to chat as they sat on their patio this morning.
It was all I could do to keep my head from swiveling around checking their whole space out. I have lots of photographs from my time there watering, but it was so tempting to study it some more. But I didn't, we just visited.
When the Spanish broom comes out and the gravel is largely removed in favor of a mulched garden created in the space, the redbud is going to look too close to the limbed up privet.
This will need to be fixed. It can be moved, in fact I could do it myself, the tree is still small.
Take out both the broom and the Rose of Sharon. Move the redbud to the other side of the red volcanic rock area. Put the blue birdbath in the red rocks where the redbud is, it will pop against the red stone.
August 2
Plans, plans, plans
It's amazing how rain, a freshening look in the garden, and cool temperatures have me obsessing about garden improvements!
We've had monsoon rains, chilly mornings, and now I am all about making changes. When it is so hot and dry all I can think about is editing down, eliminating plants, and keeping things barely alive. A few inches of rain changes my attitude.
I am consumed with removing the big Spanish Broom and eliminating all the gravel and making a new expanded garden out of that space. I am fixated on Joan's garden and getting that look and feel here.
I want to hire a garden designer for that, and also have them build a low stacked stone wall edging under the aspens, dig up all the irises in the side yard and clean out the hesperaloes. Those are things I've long planned to do and now want done right away. I really want that Spanish Broom gone now.
I want to plant more stuff out in the field (really . . .) and I want more shade in the back yard but don't know how to get that, so it's another thing I am obsessing over -- plant trees? Where? What kind? Transplant stuff I have? Move the patio table? Arrrgh.
August 1
A Case of the Smalls
I like the unpretentious look of my garden. It's not overdone. Old things on hand were used. Existing rocks, the falling apart potting bench, the plastic shed from the previous owners. Pots that I had, items that don't require a professional landscaper to move. I have bought some new things, but everything is modest.
But . . . . after being in Joan's garden to do watering chores, and then seeing Lucy's big back yard with installed rock wall, built shed and big plantings, and even after a book group meeting at a house in Rancho Viejo with huge patio and open gardens with paths and a view of the mountains, I think I have a case of the smalls.
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| Lucy's husband built this. Mine would be lower and not as deep |
Those gardens all had plants spaced apart, making it serene and open, not so crammed with little stuff as I have. I need wider borders.
Even the plastic shed in the side alley needs to be upgraded. It leaks, and it's plastic.
I'd like our handyman Tim to build something like Lucy's, shallower to fit the alley and lower to stay below the fence height, more like an outdoor closet.
I need fuller plants, and elements like paths (non-existent) or border edging (haphazardly stacked) need to be upgraded.
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| This is the kind of edging that would upgrade my border under the aspens |
What I really need is a re-do of the fence line along the back. Here's the issue:
The Spanish broom needs to come out.
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| Create a garden where the broom is, incorporating the birdbath & privet, coming well out into the yard and reducing the gravel area. |
The view from the kitchen window is dominated by that shrub, and it comes way out into the yard, leaving a dark recess below, and isn't attractive. The yellow flowers in spring are bright, but unpleasant smelling. It's browned on the inside. . .
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| This will be a wide mulched border, opened up, much less gravel |
Anyway, take it out. Lots of design possibilities.
July 26
A Normal Monsoon
This is the first year (our 4th summer) that a "normal" monsoon has occurred. Rain clouds and thunderstorms every single day. We don't always get rain -- it's localized and very spotty -- but we get dark clouds and thick overcast for days, and always, always roiling wet clouds over the mountains on either side of us.
We did get an inch and 3/4 of rain in three separate storms this July so far. The next week will be drier and less stormy, though. Look what it did to the meadow.
There are still totally bare spots out there, nothing seeds in them even with rain. Can I fill those spots?
July 25
Mid Summer Yellows & Whites
Things actually look lush and full and I have mid summer flowers this year. It's all starting to fill in.
July 23
Red Stripes
We had Tim, our handyman, here doing some minor repairs, and one thing he did was paint some red stripes on the cement of the portal and front walk.
The thin little strip at that troublesome mini-step of the sidewalk is an attempt to highlight it so no one trips. It's a hazard. I think the bit of red helps.
He painted the cement threshold at the sliding glass door in front. It had gotten crumbled and damaged when they put the new slider in this spring, and the patching looked, well . . . patched.
It visually ties things together and dresses things up at the front of the house. I put the strawberry troughs on the step, still in shade, but not in such deep shade as on the bench in the front doorway.
And I can see them now from inside. At the front door I only saw them as I went out to get the paper.
I will need to net them, though . . the birds are still going to find these when they fruit. That's not going to look so great.
The unresolved front portal looks finished and put together now. Not just a slider stuck on the front of the house on your way to the front door.
July 22
Dinner on the Patio
We had dinner at the neighbor's and I am always struck with how enclosed and sheltering their patio seems, especially sitting at the table. They eat dinners and breakfasts out there all the time. We never eat any meals at our patio table.
Their table is set near the shaded portal, near the house with big wisteria vines overhanging, and surrounded by tall plants, paths and gardens. From their table you can look beyond their fence and up to the wild greened hillside above . . . there is a view.
But the table seems too open, too far away from the door, and down a step. Against the green wall it seems confined, not sheltered. Very minor visual obstacles but enough to make the table less inviting for everyday meals.
The point of the crabapple, recently planted in gravel nearby, is to shelter the table a bit more and add some vertical height to the long expanse of horizontal fence and vine. But right now it is small and the patio table just seems too exposed, too far from the house, too crammed up against the fence, and we don't sit there for any meals.
What else can I do to make the patio table more usable while waiting for the height and shade of the crabapple to enclose the area? Move the table . . . to where? Add some plants . . . but what?
The tiny fernbush in front has a white flower stalk of pretty blooms for the first time. The blackfoot daisies are flowering well now, but still tiny plants. 
When I dug up the original ones, they were just rootless wisps, even though I bought them as full plants. They did not thrive at all. The newer ones I just got this year look way better.
Also thriving finally is the Robustissima anemone. Lots of green leaves, a couple offshoots growing nearby and some size finally. Looking forward to tall pink blooms. I actually had to move a nearby Veronica that was crowding it -- I had just put that there last year hoping to fill empty space.
The orange one in the driveway strip is getting too much water, and I see bad signs of browning leaves. Root rot.
In the kitchen courtyard the Leilani coneflowers and most of the geums had withered, and the newest, smallest geums have simply melted away -- they aren't there any more. And they had all looked so good in spring. There is no foliage I can see above ground on the new ones, one day after watering.
I added Saturday watering on the timer, but it may not be enough as the temps continue to set records while we will be away. The forecast for Kingman AZ when we arrive Thurs. night on our trip west: 108 degrees.
I treated the chlorotic aronia with iron sulfate, and now need to treat the new crabapple. It is showing signs of chlorosis.
The geums are hard to see in a photo but do pop with the blue spikes and white daisies.
I love looking out the kitchen door now and seeing this garden. Still a way to go -- the middle is bare by the rock while the Burgundy Bunny pennisetum and the nepeta fill out, but such promise.
The yellow Mexican Hats in the driveway strip are the exact gold color of the Coronation Gold yarrow and they are blooming together.
I got a slight whiff of nicotiana fragrance one recent night.
This isn't the combination of colors blooming all together that I envisioned, but it's still fun to see it come together.
Still, it's nice to see it and eventually the tower will be covered more robustly. I knew the Jupiter's Beard would not be wine red -- I expected a light red color, but this is very bright rose. Again, it's nice but a little jarring with the rosy violet clematis.
June 3
A gentle cold rain gave us a 1/4 inch yesterday. This morning the heat came on, but the day turned out sunny (and cool, very pleasant.)
Bartzella peony is blooming beautifully. What a great recovery after my disaster of a move last fall.
Wind and Hail Damage
They got shredded. We'll see if they come back.
Well, it rained hard a few days ago, delivering a half inch, and it got cold again. Very cold, very dark and the heat is on in the mornings now. But with a little sun, and end of May seasonability returning, all will look good.
All is Forgiven
The Spanish broom is in flower, a sense of maturing fullness is in the garden, a little bit but noticeable from prior years. (Tulips are totally gone by now.) The long lasting electric blue ajugas look good in their relocated spot, filling in nicely in the corner by the portal.
Before we left I brought all the seedling trays and pots inside and put them in the bathroom. I did open that big shade for more light, and I soaked some wicking mats in the trays to keep them moist.
July 17
Mid Summer and a Bit of Rain
Just a little moisture -- we got some rain recently but there's been daily threats of monsoons and the humidity is up -- has brought things into bloom.
A Maximilian sunflower in the driveway strip just opened a flower. The lavender butterfly bush in the kitchen courtyard has opened a flower.
Woodland tobacco in the blue pot by the deck sent up a big stalk and opened fireworks blooms. Millennium alliums opened up.
Scarlet monardellas are tiny but flowering.
Icicle veronicas are open, and the obedient plants I moved, at least the bigger ones, are blooming.
Leilani coneflowers look good with blue larkspurs, and the dwarf Russian sage under the kitchen window is tiny but cute. The lavender in the front triangle is blooming nicely.
A lot going on. Cool mornings and hot afternoons, all quite pleasant.
July 11
Summer Season Moves
I moved all the Crystal Peak obedient plants from the potting bench curve -- they were crowded and kind of too frilly for there. I put them in the dining room window garden where it is wetter and I needed to fill holes. They suit that space better.
I took the wispy little Apricot Lemonade cosmos out of the vase pot and planted them where the obedient plants had been. Small and delicate, they don't crowd. I moved a petunia into the pot.
I moved the Russian stonecrop from in front of the blue fescues and put it at the bridge.
It was being completely overtaken by the now thriving plumbagos. I put one of the obedient plants there. Narrow and upright, the plumbagos can grow around its stem, rather than overtop the low stonecrop.
The stonecrop flanks the bridge opening with the other stonecrop that was there.
July 10
What's Thriving in the Dining Room Window Garden
The plumbagos in the dining room window garden have finally bulked up, spread, gotten green and glossy and are finally looking like something. No longer clumpy, small things hanging on, these are lush now. They are spreading out into the creekbed a bit, and I planted a few more on the opposite side of the creek swale too.
And the transplanted Seiryu Japanese maple has not one bit of scorch on its leaves this year. it's doing well, and is a real screen from inside the house. It apparently likes the full shade location. It hasn't grown much since spring, and I pruned off some for shape, but it is still full and leafy and totally green.
July 9
Localized Monsoons
The monsoon season seems to be on schedule this year. Early July has been filled with roiling afternoon skies and thunderstorms. But they are highly localized, and sometimes drop rain on us, sometimes sprinkle the mulch a while, and sometimes miss us entirely by just a half mile. One storm gave us 3/4 inches -- a good soaker.
More predicted.
It's hard to know when to water or when to hold off.
Fourth of July
Torches
These two torch lilies (kniphofia) are not the same! But both were marked 'Poco Orange'. The orange one really is as advertised I believe, but the red one in the pot, just purchased from Lowe's, is a different one. Mismarked. But still, I like it in the urn by the patio chair and the two torch lilies are not near each other.
I need to cut way back on the water -- it was right at a Shrubbler emitter as I thought I needed to keep this very moist.
Watering kniphofia has been a challenge -- the first one that died out seemed to struggle in too much dry. Kniphofia wants evenly moist but fast draining soil.
It can't tolerate soggy, but doesn't want dry, at least not at first. I need to get this right.
I moved the emitter, and won't do any additional hand watering. Let's see if I can get this to dry out a bit at the roots.
June 27
Rain
Gentle, not driving, rain all morning. Half an inch total.
June 26
End of June Lull
Not much color or interest in the potting bench curve right now, clematis, Biokova geraniums, peony and Jupiter's Beard have gone by, and the white coneflowers, obedient plants and anything else has yet to open. Only the Weston Pink heucheras continue to flower, but the look of their delicate wands is subtle.
I got three coreopsis plants and put them in a terra cotta bowl for some color in back. Coreopsis does not come back for me after winter, never has, so these will be treated as annuals. A Las Vegas hollyhock above the pot is ready to open hope it's not pink, but a deep purple / black or red. Or even white.
In front, the dining room window garden is in a lull too, although there is some red left on the heucheras and a very similar red on the Texas betony, and a couple of the Leilani coneflowers are opening. All very receding in the shade there.
The front yard is filled with gangly Texas red yuccas, though!
I took the Northern Star agapanthus out of the urn and put a Poco Orange kniphofia in. I like it a lot. The agapanthus was simply not growing at all. Poco Orange is a dwarf and should stay small enough for this pot. I have another at the gate in the driveway strip garden.
I also got some petunias at Lowe's and put the white one in the urn in front and a deep purple one in the bowl on the stump.
It's scented, and competes with the jasmine fragrance of the tobacco on the other side of the glider. As I glide in that spot, I am overwhelmed with perfume!
June 25
Nice Surprises When We Returned
While we were away some of the Leilani coneflowers bloomed.
And the Mexican Hats have formed a big stand now. I had planted a few more this spring because the originals were so skimpy, but look at them -- quite big and full.
And I have the first blooms on the hollyhocks by the rain barrel -- pink, of course. There are many other buds, and one bud on the new ones I planted in back near the patio table too. I hope I get more than pink!
Also, when we returned I found that the crocosmias have sent up green shoots. I think almost all of the 10 I planted have appeared.
June 23
6 Days Away: assessment
It was in the mid 90s, very, very hot, for the whole time we were away, and it was windy at times. But everything came through okay. Frank watered pots once during that time, and the Shrubblers ran. As expected, they kept things alive, but all needed a real watering when we got back.
Only a few crisped, wilted plants:
All the orange agastaches in front -- they were crispy and tiny and totally limp, barely hanging on. They are not on the Shrubbler system.A white coneflower in the potting bench curve that the drip didn't reach has wilted badly, but the rest are okay.One of the newer white physostegias went kaput where the drip didn't quite reach.
Surprisingly, after a good soaking and an overnight recovery, all the wilted plants filled out again and look okay now. All else, including the things not on the irrigation system, did fine. Even the crabapple, which is not watered, was okay.
Plants on the soaker mat in the bathtub were still damp although the mat had dried out.
👐 A week away in extreme heat and with some things not on irrigation, and most all came through. 🌞
June 15
Record Heat
96 degrees, although the wind died somewhat. Smoky air from fires in the Pecos Mtns. The airport set a record today at 102 degrees.
The east side Shrubbler timer is set to water three days a week on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday mornings, but skip Wednesday and skip Friday-Saturday in a row.
I reprogrammed the timer to at least add in Saturday for watering. This is what I saw Monday afternoon, in 96 degree sunshine just one day after a soaking on Sunday morning.
Frank next door will water the big pots, I'll bring the small ones and the strawberry troughs inside and set them on a soaker mat in the tub. I put most of the moveable ones all together behind the deck.
I'll show him all the big pots and where the hoses are and all should be fine with a one time watering on Sunday.
I thought it would be a big deal to move pots around and get some inside and set things up just so and planned to take the morning to get it all arranged . . . but it took five minutes.
June 14
Chlorosis in the crabapple
Both the aronia and the crabapple were getting lots of water and I wonder if waterlogging is the culprit. Too much water can cause chlorosis if the soil doesn't drain real well.
I have been trying to keep the crabapple well watered because it is new and because I saw some brown edges on leaves as dry June came on. So I've been totally soaking it often.
When I pulled away the gravel to spread the iron sulfate today, I could see the soil was quite damp, but not boggy wet. But as I watered in the iron powder, it did not percolate through below very quickly.
I hope this helps.
On a whim I pruned off lower branches of the Vanessa parrotia today. Although just a few small branches were cut it makes a big difference, creating a whiff of elegant shape.
It's weathering the hot dry winds of June better than in prior years, when the leaves scorched and yellowed. This year it's better so far. And there is a lot of arching new growth at the very top.
June 13
And Suddenly it's HOT
After so much cool weather in the spring, it got very hot. 95 degrees, harsh sun and a lot of wind. June is the worst. Everything struggles, although I can see that with a lot of watering the more mature perennials and shrubs can take it, and the things in shade aren't as bad off. The new stuff just can't take June no matter how much I try to coddle them.
The whole weekend we'll be gone to California (6 days, from Thursday to a week from Wednesday) is forecast to be like this, in the mid to high 90s and sunny. I'll run the Shrubblers, but they don't do much, they just keep things on the edge of croaking and they don't reach everywhere.
The Orange Kudos agastaches in the front triangle are crispy and tiny despite every other day hand watering. Each is about an inch tall and getting smaller. If they have to go 6 days (that garden is not irrigated) I will need to take them out.
No loss. Agastaches and salvias are way over-hyped as drought tolerant plants. They are not. I don't know why the nursery trade keeps pushing them. They are wispy, unattractive plants and hard to keep alive. They do photograph well in a greenhouse, so that's why they sell, I guess.
The agastache by the driveway strip is a two inch thing after several years. It sends up a magenta spike or two but doesn't do anything else. The orange agastaches can't go without constant water and even so are dying out. Salvias I have grown were complete failures, shrinking into the dirt and needing soakings every day. Ugh.
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| Only 2 out of three plants bloom |
These hyped plants may do well in wet climates (May Night salvia was great in my CT garden) but they are difficult plants in a dry climate.
I did have a rosy flowered upright agastache neomexicana and it grew well enough, but was a small, blah plant. Not much flower color. I took it out two years ago.
I don't think agastaches are for me. Or salvias, I've lost a couple.
← Here's another complaint while I'm at it:
Two of the three Splendens heucheras are blooming. The third has no sign of flower stalks.
Two of the three Karl Foerster grasses are flowering. The third is not.
Huh?
June 10
Cottonwood
The cottonwood tree looks so much better this year, green and fully and leafy. But boy do I hate having to pull sprouts all spring. I used to struggle to pull away the gravel and then detach the sprouting stems from the source, but this year I just go out all the time and lop off whatever tiny leaves I can get that show above the gravel.
Ugh. They're everywhere. Eventually in summer they decrease but for now it's constant bending over to pull leaves off them.
I couldn't find Kent's Beauty oregano for the terra cotta trough on the patio coffee table this year.
I ended up putting a Silver Falls dichondra in the oblong pot and now I love how it actually mirrors the turquoise blue of the glider cushions.
Can't wait for it to fill out more and drape over.
The pretty nicotiana alata in the red pot in the corner is starting to look nice. And it really has quite a perfumed smell in the evenings now.
June 9
Pleasant morning
It's June so the humidity is below 10%, the soil is parched and the sun is strong. But this morning, while promising a hot dry day, the morning had such a cool refreshing breeze.
I snipped off the Swallowtail columbines that had gone by. Watered almost everything, despite the fact the Shrubblers are running every other day.
The kitchen courtyard is finally coming along. Royal Candles veronicas are spectacular and look great interspersed with the looser chamomile and the orange geums.
I love looking out the kitchen door now and seeing this garden. Still a way to go -- the middle is bare by the rock while the Burgundy Bunny pennisetum and the nepeta fill out, but such promise.
George Davidson crocosmias are still a no show -- only one blade to the right of the Kintzley's Ghost has appeared. But the first year I grew them in a pot they took a long time to show up too. I'll wait.
Red Cascade rose is glorious right now. But I wish it would grow upward and start cascading!
The yellow Mexican Hats in the driveway strip are the exact gold color of the Coronation Gold yarrow and they are blooming together.
June 7
Vignettes
I got two great purchases from Gardener's Supply that kind of dress up the corner by the hose:
One - a stand to hook the hose over. The coil hose is on the upright post and then the attached straight one hangs over the little stand. I can leave the two hoses attached and they store neatly.
Second - a chicken wire cloche to protect the blueberries from birds. It sets atop the white cement pot absolutely perfectly. I got another to protect the tiny Low Mound aronia under the pine from rabbits.
Another nice vignette is the potting bench curve. Looking nice in the early morning:
It's still very cool in the evenings and cold at night -- I need much warmer evening temperature to really appreciate the smell on the night air.
But as I sat out on the patio in cool breezes before bed a few nights go, there it was -- a little bit of perfume.
I first put each of the three plants in separate pots, but finally put them all together, plus a seedling I had started. Will it be crowded?
They seemed too narrow each in its own pot, so even though crowded, I think this works better. More impactful visually, and more likely to send a detectable fragrance out across the patio.
June 5
Color Combo
The violacae clematis is flowering for the first time, and it isn't the deep purple with white streaks I thought it would be. More pink purple.
And how did the peony get so yellow? I remember Bartzella being a creamy, warm yellow, not the neon color it is this year!
I wanted deep royal purple, clear red and a touch of yellow to soften things, but this is what is there instead - magenta, rose and banana.
But it's great to see it all flowering together and filling the garden with color and form.
In other developments, I got some iron sulfate and spread that around the chlorotic aronia. That little shrub under the dining room window has not grown a bit, is in fact diminished after the rabbit halved it last year, and its leaves are clearly yellow with green ribs.
I hope the iron helps it.
Grasses Look Awful
The blue fescue grasses are healthy enough and are a good shape, filling the mid level of the dining room window garden and gracefully bracketing the Japanese maple. They are sending up airy seed stalks now.
But oof. They are brown mini-haystacks. Their icy blue fronds are mostly dry brown leftovers from last year and I could not comb out the brown hay at all.
Some sources say cut them down to about an inch in winter to regrow new blades. Others say leave them standing but comb out the dead blades in winter. All say they are short lived perennials.
The biggest one by the bridge is better but still not attractive. The two I potted up in red pots by the irises are little better, not much.
What should I do? They add contrast and grace to this garden, but not if they look like this. I need something mid level with some fullness and presence to replace them if I take them out. Nothing flowery -- the columbines behind them bloom profusely -- but what?
Some updates ---
The Immortality irises: only one blooms or even has buds. Since I considered that they may be planted too deep and too close together, I dug them up and re-planted them too deep and too close together. Sheesh.With their broad sword fans it was impossible to get them to stand upright planted shallowly. Not a successful remedy . . .The Splendens heucheras: why do their blooms look so rosy this year and not red? The sole one over by the fescue grasses is fullest and most flowery, but two of the three in a line by the bridge are flowering okay. The third in that line is not.
June 1
Sitting at my Desk
Everything is fresh looking now.
Only one of the Immortality irises is blooming. None bloomed last year.
The cause is either that they are immature (it takes a couple years to flower) or that they are crowded or planted too deep. I think they are too deep. I need to remove some soil and expose a bit of each crown.
I like sitting at the desk in the bedroom and looking across the deck to see it peeking through the chair.
The rosy Jupiter's Beard looks good and the nearby Violacae clematis, though skinny and delicate, has buds ready to open.
That strip along the fence line on either side of the Sky Rocket juniper looks completed now.
The peony, the clematis on the tower, the fullness of lambs ears and pallida iris and Jupiter's Beard all looks composed.
On the other side, the new clump of hollyhocks and the expanded Millennium alliums and the transplanted little nepeta where the peony had been all looks complete now.
Even the juniper has put on size and has some presence in front of the green wall of fence.
I like how it has come together finally. Love sitting at the desk and looking out at a real garden.
May 30
Lots of Little Stuff
I puttered all morning and got things moved.
I put the David Verity cuphea by the sundial in more sun, moved the Summer Jewel sages to the back by the waterworks. I dug up one of the golden variegated irises that was blocking the pink heucheras and moved it to the back of the potting bench curve where it actually makes an impact along the back rr tie.
I dug up the grape purple iris and moved it to the corner by the two Jackman clematis vines. Without being crowded by the purple iris, the one blooming Immortality white iris really pops. Love it.
I dug up the gambel oak that got sheared by hail and wind after planting and put in a new one. I did pot up the decapitated one. I has one leaf left and a few thin roots. Poor, tiny thing.
I cleaned up the fallen pinecones from in front and used them for mulch. Here's the woodland tobacco with its pinecone covering.
Planted out all the teeny-tiny two-leaf seedlings of cosmos and blanketflower and even one orange zinnia, the size of a piece of lint. My seed starting was a bust. Nothing progressed beyond two leaves. Cold spring nights, no real warmth. Ugh.
Stormy weather all weekend, some hail but not much. Clouds and wind and humidity.
Memorial Day Weekend
Filling Out
Everything this year is about 2 weeks late (a cold spring) and looking thinned (recent hailstorms). Lots of broken stems, knocked off flower stalks, and tattered leaves, but plants are starting to look more mature this year, and bigger.
The red Splendens heucheras are blooming. And the pink Weston's Pink ones are too. Swallowtail columbines just keep carrying on beautifully.
This year the blue fescue grasses retained their brown fronds and I couldn't clean them out. Makes them look browned out, not the cool steely blue they had been before.
The Oklahoma redbud is only now putting out leaves. They look healthy and glossy (I water this a lot) but they seem to be emerging slowly. They started coming out a few weeks ago but stayed tiny til now.
Perky Sue gave me flowers for the first time this year, but the two plants in the guest room window garden look different.
Coronation Gold yarrow has opened up. A little leggy and open, it's getting too much water. Immortality iris is blooming (one came up purple, mismarked (!!) and I have to move it. The pallida iris is blooming -- a very pale lavender which I'm not crazy about, especially in front of the rosy Jupiter's Beard, which is flowering now too.
Another first time bloomer for me is the Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle, which got battered by hail, but is flowering really well this year and looking full.
And the plants in the kitchen courtyard in general look great. Chamomile is blooming since forever, the orange geums are delicate and pretty, blooming a long time, and the Royal Candles veronicas are opening.
Biokovo geraniums are pretty and I added more to make even more impact. Surprisingly showy for such a delicate flower.
Things really do look good now, and more robust than in the past. Despite the hail damage and cold start to spring, I'm feeling pretty good about it all.
May 25
Irrigation System Set Up
It was and it wasn't the major project I anticipated to get the Shrubblers repaired, tested, and set up.
💦 Daunting at first, the timers were a frustration, but soon got figured out and programmed, with fresh batteries installed. Hooking them up to the main faucet lines was easier than I expected.
Timers: Programmed and attached ✔ Tested. They start and run on schedule. ✔
🚰 Only a few emitters were snapped off, just a couple, even though I ordered 25 replacements! Only one or two feeder lines had detached. It was hard maneuvering, though, as the plants have filled in and it's all ground level work and . . . I'm too old for this.
Emitters: Fixed ✔
Main lines & tubes: Buried as best I could ✔
💧 I had a few places where I needed to punch a hole in the line and add some emitters. Easily enough done.
Now:
🔜 Add mulch: Cover some lines and some bare spots with mulch. Just a few spots.
Not as bad as I thought it would be. The system came through winter fine, with no leaks or broken lines, just a couple emitters that needed a new cap or re-attached line or a new emitter put on. The timers got installed with no issues.
It still isn't much. It's not a real irrigation system, the pressure is pathetically dribbly and I still need to hand water. BUT . . . I just need it for when we go away for a week in June when the soil and air are so dry. All it has to do is dribble enough to keep the newer things alive.
I cut back the length of watering in each section and I can already see that the more mature things from 2 years ago can go a bit without the every other day drip. But still . . . .
May 23
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| Tobacco in shreds |
The turbulent conditions ended last night with a windy hailstorm.
Driving, pelting hail that threatened to crash through the skylights and bounced hard pellets all over.
Today, cottonwood leaves and aspen twigs litter the gardens. The leaves didn't just fall, the big wet cottonwood leaves are embedded inside my perennials and hard to remove.
My flowering tobacco in pots didn't fare well. They had looked so good, both the alata and the sylvestnis were putting on lots of growth.
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| Gaura, just before the storm |
The hollyhocks in back are tattered but should recover. The redtwig dogwood in its pot also looks shreddy, but will be okay.
The big white gaura that had looked its fullest ever, especially at the base where it tended to be bare, is now limp bent stalks.
It will recover, but boy it looked good just before the storm.
The worst damage was the canvas awning over our back door. The material split down the middle seam and sunshine now pours in through the narrow gap.
It has to be replaced, and our thought is to re-build the canopy in wood rather than canvas over a metal frame, and pitch it so ice melts to either side and not right in front of the doorstep.
May 22
Unsettled conditions
Weather has been all over the place -- rain, followed by beautiful days, then cold, heat on in the house, cloudy, thunderstormy, full sunshine and then dark gloom. Every day is unsettled.
Lucy came over with her pickaxe and helped me plant the other two oaks, but even with her help, all three are basically sitting in amended soil in bowls of caliche. This scrub oak forest experiment may not work.
May is getting away from me. I still need to get the Shrubblers hooked up and repaired. Need to get to it.
May 19
Got some rain
I got three tiny gambel oaks to plant out in the common area. They were only $14 each at Plants of the Southwest.
What I thought was loose, sandy, infertile soil out there is actually a layer of baked sand over hard caliche. Planting even one of these tiny things was a chore.
I chopped out what I could and added a whole bag of compost mixed with the heavy chopped up caliche. I added a bag of wood chip mulch to keep the gumbo mixture moist over the hole.
But basically, of course, the tiny sapling is sitting in a cement bowl, even though I tried to make the bowl as big as possible.
There it is -- a splotch of brown mulch covering a patch of wet caliche, the little tree not even visible.
The new member of our grounds committee, Lucy, has offered her services with a pick axe to help dig the holes. For the last two oaks I am taking them up on their generous offer. They are both into land restoration with native plants, and are encouraging this kind of planting.
I need to commit to planting things out in this space and tending them. My efforts at some dry loving perennials, grasses, and other experiments were totally insufficient, despite hauling the hose out there to water them.
Only the desert willow is doing anything. The 3 Apache plumes I planted are down to one okay small plant, and one tiny struggler barely alive. Same with the 3 Russian sages. The Maximillian sunflowers only grow in an unusually wet year. This is not a garden space, even for tough desert plants.
May 14
It's nice now, and I'm done complaining about the cold and wind. Lovely weather, sunshine, still and calm, and the garden looks good.
I'm tired of planting and tending new things, though. After a coffee at Andrea's, where we sat in her mature, full garden where things are tucked around, not placed about, I came home and fussed about how little my things are, how clumpy and stiff some of it still looks. So many things are still so small and new.
And yet. It is starting to look really good.
The Japanese maple under the cottonwood is gorgeous, especially from inside the house. The lower plantings need to fill out and relax, but how nice this is!
I got more things in the ground today:
Planted the Leilani coneflowers (3 in the dining room window garden, 2 in the kitchen courtyard and gave one to Andrea)Planted two more hollyhocks in the row by the rain barrelPlanted 3 Icicle veronicas in the dining room window garden
Planted the low mound aronia under the pine in front.
May 12
Still cold and windy
It's still awful out, especially in the mornings with strong wind and temps in the high 30s and 40s. Cold. Socks on every morning, heat on, and often it's cloudy and overcast too. The day warms up, the sun comes out, but it doesn't get into a comfort zone until about 4 p.m.
My seedlings struggle in the cold wind, but I keep taking them outside for sunlight. I have more things from Bluestone to plant. I need to set up the Shrubblers, it's dry. Much to do and May is getting away from me with trips (to Denver), ground committee tasks (3 full days of meetings) and other scheduled stuff.
But things look good, finally bulking up a bit after several years.
Perky Sue in the guest room crescent garden will look great when the Blue Ice amsonia dark blue flowers pop (soon). And threadleaf fleabane in the front triangle has a few blooms finally. Both are tiny, cute, hard to really see, but so much more than last year.
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| Perky Sue on the left, Fleabane on the right |
The Swallowtail columbines are again spectacular, especially with the purple widow's tears geranium phaeums -- need more of those to make an impact, they are tiny.
Everything is starting to look promising!
May 10
Plantings
I got much of the Bluestone order planted today. It was cold and windy in the morning but by mid day the wind was more of a breeze and it was pleasant enough.
Planted the Mrs. George Jackman white clematis (from Sooner Farm)
Planted one of the hollyhocks to make 3 by the back fence
Planted the 3 new Biokovo geraniums to make a line of 4
Planted the Totally Orange geums -- put two next to the little Venosa violace clematis
Planted 3 more Pow Wow white coneflowers
Put the Northern Star agapanthus in the tan jar container by the patio chair
The Spanish broom is now coming into full bloom. Quite a heavy fragrance.
I have a red strawberry! Still ripening.
May 9
Weekend Away
Of course the big plant order from Bluestone arrived an hour after we left for Denver on Friday and had to sit in unopened boxes for 3 days. But they were fine. I gave my neighbor Joan a key before we left and she brought them into the house so they wouldn't sit out on the front porch.
I watered everything really well before we left, anxious as always about the constant daily need to monitor delicate plants. Then shortly after we left thunderstorms rolled through -- at least on the map, delivering rain. When we got home, though, not a drop of moisture was in the rain gauge. Nada.
They were okay when I got back.
I am frustrated dealing with the needs of seedlings, lights, tiny new plants, unwatered pots, dry conditions outdoors, mail order deliveries, and all the fuss that goes with leaving home -- in this case just for three days -- and having to worry about tending living things!
The thought of leaving for a week or more (and in June we'll go to California again) is daunting. I don't want to be so tied down to my gardens and plants.
I want more freedom to come and go without making arrangements for watering and tending ahead of time and worrying while away.
May 6
Now it's all too fast at the wrong time
The season is much behind prior years -- the Spanish broom is barely opening a few yellow flowers today and in other years it was in full bloom in late April. Even with just a few buds opening I can smell its song scent.
Swallowtail columbines are blooming, tulips are going by, the intensely blue ajugas in front are flowering heavily in their smaller, much reduced patch.
The tiny aronia with its 3 stems and 5 tiny flowers is blooming but the plant gets smaller each year.
It all feels like it is coming on too fast now, after a delay and slow start.
My seedling starts are pathetic, started too early, out in the cold too much and still too tiny. Seed growing is just not my thing.
All my plant orders have arrived except for the biggest one from Bluestone Perennials, which comes late Friday, the one occasion where we'll be gone. We leave for Denver Friday morning for the weekend. The boxes will sit on the front porch for 3 days -- I'll have to ask our neighbor to bring them in and give her a key so she can put them in the house.
They'll be fine in the unopened boxes for an additional 2-3 days, but why did they have to arrive on the ONE DAY we planned to be away for a few days?? We go almost nowhere and are always home. . . except for this one time. It's all too fast, all at the wrong time.
May 3
Disaster Ushers in the Season
It's been lovely but today they promised rain. Temps are in the 50s and storms moved in bringing the expectation of moisture and relief and . . . this is what we got:
It's still 50 degrees out, but the ice is persisting in pots and gardens.
The newly planted tobaccos that were looking so great are tattered. Will they survive? Their leaves are so big and thin and full of holes now as they sit in a pool of ice. I think they'll survive, and the cosmos I potted up too. I hope.
I had carefully watched the forecast before getting too ahead of myself with summer planting. The weather all week was supposed to be warm and nice, nights well above freezing and lots of sun except for some thunderstorms today that promised to deliver needed rain. Not ice.
Not ice.
We got 1/4 inch from the hail and then another 1/4 inch of rain overnight. Last moisture was March 17 when we had a lingering snowmelt. April 28 there was a sprinkle of hail but not enough to register. So it's been dry since mid March, and this rain / hail event was needed.
May 1
Summer Begins
It's totally lovely, temps in the low 70s, a gentle breeze and sunshine. New Mexico at its finest! Aaahh.
Summer starts for me in May. The next 5 months, through September, are Summer in the Garden. Fall comes quickly after that.
> Yesterday, the last day of "spring", I fertilized the roses and clematis and the ajugas with a bloom booster fertilizer.> Today I hooked up all the hoses -- not the Shrubbler lines yet, but I did put splitters on the faucets and added hoses so every part of the garden can get water now. That's a big improvement over spring watering chores!> I planted the tobacco plants in pots. An experiment! I had to move the metal pig and ended up putting him in the potting bench curve. I like the way the black and white echoes the trunks of the aspens above.
I needed to move the sunflowers from the driveway strip. I planted just one or two and this spring a big bunch are coming up in two locations, already swamping what's there.
It was a whim when I planted them last fall, but they are too robust with all the water they get. I dug up the batch behind the stone owl. I potted the clump in a small pot and took them up to Greg's.
(The Maximillian sunflowers at the side of the garage struggle -- no soil, not enough water. But with lots of water in this tiny driveway strip they flourish!)